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Monday, June 17, 2013

Struck by the Rabbi's Color

Yeah, I know, this is the part where I usually give you cute little teasers about the three films I'm going to be reviewing. Today's post, however, is special because it is our first At Home Viewing article that includes 2013 releases, specifically Upstream Color and Struck By Lightning. We are not, however, quite done with the 2012 films as I have about twenty left to do. Today they are represented by the animated feature The Rabbi's Cat. Might as well get under way...

Upstream Color - This is the second feature from writer/director/star Shane Carruth. I have not seen his first film, Primer, but after checking out this movie, I'm more than a little interested. Upstream Color is, quite simply, the most creative and original science fiction movie that I have seen in a long time (at least since Inception). I don't ever say this lightly but I was quite literally blown away. I went into the film with very few expectations one way or another (the picture is still quite obscure, flying under most movie goer's radars). This is probably to the film's advantage because it is said air of mystery and uncertainty that is the film's greatest strength. To that end, I am not going to give away any more of the plot than is absolutely needed.
Upstream Color is not for the impatient or easily frustrated. The plot is quite literally baffling in the film's first half. It is the sort of film that you need to just let wash over you for a time until the pieces finally begin to come together. Even when you have seen the whole film once, chances are that it will not all make sense. I admit to re-watching it a couple of times myself almost immediately. Of course, this means that I can say without reservation that this is definitely a feature that highly rewards multiple viewings.
Besides its ambiguity, the only other real complaint that I've read about the film is the acting performance of director Shane Carruth. I, however, found both he and Amy Seimetz's lead performances to be fantastic. They both come across as listless and emotionally disconnected, but there is a very good reason for this. Just trust me. I actually found that both of them gave multi-layered performances, letting you see glimpses of their more humanizing emotions seeping out through the cracks of their general disorientation. Andrew Sensenig is also delightfully creepy in a supporting role and Thiago Martins absolutely terrified me in the first half hour.
I guess at this point I don't really have to say that I HIGHLY recommend this picture. Besides surely being one of the best written films of a year that is just getting started, and being very well acted, the cinematography is absolutely gorgeous. You can once again thank the multi-talented (and multi-hat-wearing) Mr. Carruth, who also composed the original music and had a hand in the editing. He instantly goes to the front of the class of exciting new auteurs with Brit Marling and Benh Zeitlen. I cannot think of a more perfect low budget science fiction flick...5 of 5 stars.

Struck By Lightning - This marks Emmy winning actor Chris Colfer's (best known for playing Kurt on the television show Glee) debut writing credit on a feature film. I have really enjoyed Mr. Colfer's work on Glee, especially the way in which his character has helped to change public perceptions of young gay men. As such, I was very hopeful that this film would be just as much of a delight, whether it addressed similar themes or not. Unfortunately, I cannot say that it was. It was actually a rather flawed effort which failed to really go anywhere or say very much of anything.
It tells the story of an ambitious young high school student who is trying desperately to effect his escape from the small town he feels is hampering his growth. Or was that Ferris Bueller's Day Off? Rushmore? No, no...Election. Get it? Subplots include his relationships with his estranged parents. His mother is a pill popping head case who acts as if she couldn't care less about him while his father is absent and plays no part in his life whatsoever. Both of these relationships provide rich potential for development, but were never given enough time or focus to evolve into anything that would provide growth or insight to either the characters or the viewer. Carson (Colfer) starts a literary magazine to try and improve his college chances and blackmails other prominent members of the student body into participating. We never really see his plan's success or see him face consequences for his unscrupulous methods. Some effort is made to insinuate that the students involved might have learned something about themselves through the process of writing, but this thematic thread doesn't go far enough, and sort of trail off into nothingness.
Mr. Colfer also stars in the film, and I think that he may have been thinking more as an actor than as a writer during the process of conceptualizing his script. Carson (his character), besides being bitter and witty, is left as sort of an everyman, the straight man (or voice of reason if you want to get really technical in a literary way) in a field of extreme personalities. I can only assume that this was done to demonstrate that the actor possesses range well the flamboyant exuberance central to his characterization of Kurt on the show that made him famous. This does not serve the plot as well as it could have, but it REALLY does a disservice to the young artist as an actor. Mr. Colfer has tremendous talent, but it is as a CHARACTER actor. This is not to say that he must always be relegated to supporting status, but standard everyman type leading characters are a waste of his rare gift for quirkiness and going over the top.
The best things about this film are the performances of SOME members of the supporting cast. Allison Janney is captivating as always even when delivering slightly stilted dialogue as Carson's mother. Polly Bergan is likewise delightful as his dementia ridden grandmother, although we have certainly seen her play somewhat similar roles in the past. Sarah Hyland (best known as the youngest daughter on Modern Family) does a respectable job although she, too, is cast to rather familiar type. Allie Grant (who played young lesbian plus size model Isabelle Hodes on the first several seasons of Weeds) probably stretches herself the most as the uptight yearbook editor.
Late in the film, Mr. Colfer tries to tie in some sort of metaphoric subtext about bitterness and "personal rain clouds". Like most of the other threads of the script, this one comes off as frayed. I do hope that Mr. Colfer gets another shot with another screenplay (or at least another leading film role) because I feel that he has a lot more to offer than just one great role on one good TV show. Next time, however, I hope he gives himself a more interesting character that stretches his bag of tricks in some way besides being less obviously homosexual. I also hope that he takes a little more time with his other characters and situations so as to avoid quick and easy stereotypes. Maybe even a story outside of the overly dramatized and over played struggles of American high school students...3 of 5 stars.

The Rabbi's Cat - Typically, European animated films are quite different from their American counterparts in several key ways. They tend to be aimed more at the entertainment of both adults and children (you know, like Pixar in the old days only more so). They rely a lot less on musical interludes delivered in the style of a Broadway play (if at all). The cast of characters in no way seem to have been designed with an action figure line already planned out. They involve a little more thought (and wit) than cuteness (and fart jokes). The biggest difference, however, is that Foreign 'toons seem to be written in a far more literary style, at least attempting to develop something a little more thematically complex than a one sentence moral presented in a far more clumsy and obvious way than Aesop ever did. The higher meanings behind last year's Animated nominees, for example, could be summed up like this:
1. Don't be ruled by fate, but don't forget who you are.
2. Sometimes weird is good and even necessary.
3. If you set out to do the impossible you may succeed, but it will be an empty victory if your motivations are not rooted in love. (Which ain't half bad and is why Frankenweenie should have won)
4. Don't be ruled by fate, but don't forget who you are. (This would have been good advice to both the parent studio and its subsidiary. Maybe if they'd paid attention to their own platitudes they wouldn't have both made the same cartoon last year.)
5. It's funny when stupid clumsy pirates get hurt. (Sorry Aardman, but this was such a make-up nod for nominating three films that were nowhere near as good Arthur Christmas for the 84th Oscars.)
Which brings us, at long last, to The Rabbi's Cat. It is not an "adults only" type of animated story. It doesn't indulge in the sort of lusty sensuality (not to mention excessive overindulgence in alcohol) of Chico and Rita. It IS, however, the most thematically ambitious piece of 100% animated film making that I have ever seen. Race relations, the quality of truth, religious tolerance, the nature of faith, love (in a world beyond fairy tales) and tradition versus innovation are all topics that have been skillfully woven into the tapestry of this tale. I cannot stress enough how refreshing it is that these serious subjects of thought emerged organically from the interaction of the characters and events. The Rabbi's Cat is no message movie, nor does it attempt to give pat or easy answers to the questions it raises.
The picture is based upon the graphic novel of the same name by French actor/writer/director Joann Sfar.
Of course, he had help on the directing side of things from Antoine Delesvaux, and on the writing side from Sandrina Jardel. I incorrectly assumed that having created the original story was Mr.Sfar's only qualification for these positions, but he actually had previous directing experience on Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life (which I have never seen). The translation from printed medium to dramatic representation was accomplished with sensibilities that show deft awareness pertaining to the requirements of the medium.
I do have a couple of reservations about the film, however. While I usually abhor dubbed translations on Foreign Language Films, I actually prefer them to subtitles (which this film implemented) when the film in question is animated. In live action movies, the dubbing of (usually inferior) English interpretations of the lines detracts far too much from the power of the actors' performances. In a cartoon, where every element besides the voice is supplied artificially, it is difficult to pull much depth of feeling from the words if you do not understand them. It is something of a lesson about how essential facial expressions and body language are to our perceptions of not only the craft of acting, but all observations of human expression. At any rate, The Rabbi's Cat went with subtitles which is far too distracting from the animation itself, as it requires that you look at it to appreciate it.
The only other complaint that I can muster is that the film ended a little too abruptly for my tastes. While I understand that the thematic questions raised in this picture are far too expansive and elusive to enable neat and easy solutions over the course of one feature length cartoon. Trying to wrap them up in the finale would have been disastrous. The problem lies in the fact that even the plot lines seemed to just sort of rush through a denouma and end, without resolving any of the characters' plots. Still, you have to give Mr. Sfar points for courage and chutzpah...4 of 5 stars.